KEY WORDS

Mediterranean Environmental Review Monitoring for port Authorities through Integrated Development

PRESENTATION OF THE PROJECT

The objective of MERMAID is to establish a state-of-theart of environmental monitoring systems operated by urban ports. The project will review the best practices of ports and set up a list of environmental paràmetres (air pollution, noise, water quality, etc.) that need to be monitored. The project include studying around 20 ports and visiting 6 ports which have implemented an environmental monitoring system with the objective to know what are the sustainability and communication policies of the port authorities regarding environmental issues. Finally, it includes a guideline to encourage European ports to deploy these best practices.

MAIN MESSAGES

A variety of Environmental Monitoring Systems (EMS) exist in ports. Many European ports monitor a series of environmental parameters according to their activities and challenges. Their approach is often limited to punctual studies and real time systems are uncommon;

EMS are often part of a more structured approach which includes a sustainable development and communication policy as well as an environmental management system

EMS is becoming essential for urban ports very often dealing with the issue of port acceptability in the city, as it: (1) allows real time reactions in case of threshold overruns or environmental incidents and contribute to raise awareness in the port, (2) allows communication and transparency with the local community (local authorities, scientific research, media and the general public) while creating confidence in local port-city governance;

EMS operated by port authorities are frequently independent of the equivalent systems operated by other public agencies (except for air quality in general). Data and policies are seldom exchanged or consolidated.

KEY DELIVERABLE

MAPPING OF PORTS WITH ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING SYSTEMS The deliverable provides a map locating the ports studied and visited equipped with an environmental monitoring system.

DATABASE OF INDICATORS (AVAILABLE HERE) The database of indicators provides a list of the environmental parameters that are studied and monitored in more than 80 ports.

DATABASE OF APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTIONS (AVAILABLE HERE) The database of technological solutions provides a non-exhaustive list of existing technologies used by European urban ports to measure environmental pollutions related to air, water, and noise as well as energy consumption

REPORTING & SUCCESS FACTORS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MONIROTING SYSTEMS The deliverable consists in a summary of all the information collected during port visits. For each one of the visited port, the document describes information regarding different aspects: Sustainability and communication policies of the port authority regarding environmental issues; Environmental management system; Environmental monitoring (air quality, noise, water quality, wastes, energy) The report also shows a comparative analysis between ports, for each of the environmental aspects subject to monitoring.

STRATEGY AND WORKING PAPER Taking into account the studies and the visits of urban ports, the objective of the Strategy and Working Paper is to provide recommendations addressed to port authorities wishing to implement an environmental monitoring system and recommendations for the orientations of the 2014-2020 MED Programme.

TECHNICALS HINTS

The improvement of EMS by developing and using smart tools at low cost, and considering maintenance and operating cost in initial stage;

The widening of the scope of the EMS (currently air & water quality + noise) to waste management, energy efficiency and road traffic;

Addressing the issue of societal impact of port on the city through road traffic and urban sites congestion, especially through cruise and ferry activities

The development of environmental communication tools between ports and their stakeholders, to facilitate the exchange and consolidation of environmental information;

The promotion of the development of cooperation agreements between public agencies and port authorities, in order to support sustainable development, not only environmental protection to improve collective environmental governance at the port/city interface;

The support of experimental solutions in real conditions;

The encouragement of the exchange of best environmental practices among European ports, in particular regarding the types of data to measure;

The discussion of the interest of specific regulations;

The fostering of partnerships and reflections between ship companies, ports and the destination.

SYNERGIES WITH OTHER PROJECTS

With CAIMANs project: participation and response to the consultation addressed to ports in order to identify solutions to mitigate the impact of cruise and passenger ships on air quality

With SMART PORT project: reporting on our participation to the GreenPort Cruise and GreenPort Congress with inputs on the Smart Port concept. Communication from SMART PORT of information on environmental monitoring systems in the port of Genoa.

With EcoPorts project: exchanges and expertise from EcoPorts Coordinator, also member of the MERMAID Advisory Group. Introducing port visits.